Captain Pradeep Chawla, CEO and Founder of Maritime Knowledge, the holding company of maritime training solutions provider, MarinePALS, explains why we should stop looking at the perceived negative impacts of social media on the young but rather embrace its benefits.
While it’s true that a significant majority of people certainly believe that their own attention span has diminished with the introduction of smart phones and social media, recent studies by Kings College, London suggest that the effects are actually much more nuanced. Many people have developed a more sophisticated approach that allows them to make use of technology to multitask and have subsequently become more efficient in their daily and working lives.
Whatever the case, we need to harness the opportunities provided by social media and accept that how people want to obtain knowledge, whether news, fun facts or educational, has changed. It follows therefore that the more traditional approaches to education are undergoing a profound transformation and the maritime sector, which has tended to be conventional in its attitudes, is now taking note of this paradigm shift. Research has demonstrated that textbook learning, based on the need to read vast tracts of text and commit the vital contents to memory, is far less effective than interactive and bitesize content.
Fortunately there is no longer the need for seafarers to spend hours poring over books in order to achieve their competencies. This out-dated way of teaching is disconnected from both real-world applications and real-world leisure activities for the current generation. Today the best educators are placing the emphasis on empowering learners to engage with content which best suits their learning style and is undertaken at a time and place of their own choosing. And this is all being made possible through digitalisation which offers a diverse range of interactive materials that can easily be adapted to a number of different learning styles.
One of the most prominent innovations in training is the integration of gamification which applies similar content and activity to that found in gaming.
Learners have been seen to not only enjoy the time spent learning but also have improved retention of the knowledge that has been imparted. Education via gamification incorporates the training materials into sessions that are structured like online games and they can be developed to simulate scenarios that replicate issues found in Port State Inspections or Safety Management Systems (SIRE). These games allow learners to experience a realistic environment that will help them to absorb essential facts and also develop the critical thinking skills and situational awareness that are crucial to ensuring vessel safety and compliance.
Similarly, Virtual Reality has emerged as a game-changer in maritime training. It offers immersion that can replicate the onboard environment and allows seafarers to experience something very close to reality. It has an advantage over simulator training in that the only equipment needed is a VR headset – no need to go to a specialist facility and book time on a machine. This is hands-on form of learning that allows students to familiarise themselves with key pieces of machinery, practice emergency procedures, and navigate complex scenarios, all within a safe and controlled virtual setting. This is a great way to enhance technical skills and instil confidence and proficiency that can be translated into effective onboard operations.
Video shorts, like the clips from YouTube and Tiktok that we are all familiar with, are perfect for sharing bits of necessary knowledge within a very tight timeframe – anything from one minute up to about seven minutes. By combining visual and audio, the information is easy to assimilate and retain.
While we now have a greater understanding of how to disseminate information in a more engaging and entertaining way, maritime still needs to take further steps towards making this interactive style of learning more readily available.
These new technologies will take time to integrate into maritime training institutions and there will be the need for more investment in infrastructure and resources, not to mention upskilling instructors. It will also be necessary to keep costs reasonable so that seafarers worldwide can take advantage.
But despite these hurdles, the benefits of harnessing the power of interactive and digital training solutions far outweigh the challenges. If we want to encourage seafarers to enhance their skills, progress their careers and develop a lifelong interest in learning, we must ensure that we support them by providing training that is flexible and relevant, not only to their professional needs but also to their own personal interests.
With many of us looking at our Smart phones up to 80 times a day, surely we can leverage this habit into a more rewarding way of learning so that, instead of flicking through a few TikTok clips, young seafarers can have a go at the next game in their learning app or take in a short video on safety. In essence, let’s bring the fun into learning!
The views presented are only those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
